McCalls 7574 In Rich Emerald

I’m back with yet another elevated basic and today I’ve got a McCalls 7574 in a rich emerald green cotton-blend sweatshirting. A big shout out to Lucy from Sewessential (AD) who provided me with both fabric and pattern to work my magic with.

I actually met Lucy when I attended Stitch Room Sewcial at Loughborough University about 3 years ago and she’s just as lovely in real life as she is in her YouTube videos.

Anyway enough chat, let me tell you about my top… well first off I was drawn to the lovely two-piece saddle shoulder raglan sleeves and the easy casual shape. It’s a design meant for moderate stretch fabrics and I already knew what I was letting myself in for when I chose my green sweatshirt fabric which has only some mechanical stretch, but I wasn’t going to let that stop me! 🙂

I deliberately went up a size and decided that as I wanted a slim fit I could solve that with a cheeky little side zip (more on that later). This pattern is a Melissa Watson design and it has some fabulous fit notes in the instructions plus markings on the pattern to let you know where to fold or cut and spread. I did a moderate FBA, squared off-the-shoulder line and did a small round back adjustment before cutting out. 

Now it can’t have escaped your notice that there’s an eyelet detail on my top…well a little while back I did a quick sweater repair for my mum’s hairdresser and it had a similar embellishment on it which I loved so much that I wanted to give it a go myself sometime.

Obviously, I figured that it would be better to install the eyelets before sewing the whole top up and I didn’t want to spoil my lovely fabric so I practised on a scrap of it first. I found out that it was best to keep the hole quite small and to interface the back of each eyelet. After my practice run, I got all confident about it but then as I was doing the main garment I ended up having to prise off about 10 out of the 42 eyelets as I went along because I found out that if I pressed my green eyelet machine a bit too hard it split the eyelet! Aarrrgh! Luckily I got through it eventually, but my goodness I needed a stiff drink afterwards!

PS…this is the sort of eyelet press that I have

Once the worst part was over I could enjoy making up the top. The fleecy backed sweatshirting (by the way they have other lovely colours) stitched up like a breeze with a standard foot and an 80 ballpoint machine needle (side note…I didn’t overlock any of my seams…oh, the audacity! Lol!). It also pressed quite well too. The instructions actually have you press the seams to one side and topstitch but with the thickness of my fabric, I decided to press some of my seams open and stitch on either side instead. I even topstitched the bust dart that I created with the FBA. 

Ok, do you remember that zip that I mentioned? Well, I found a concealed one in my stash and although it’s not a great match I still went with it and installed it at the side with it finishing just to where the side slit starts. Now my top is easy to get on and off. Ooh, and after I added a simple neck binding I also left the back neck open a little to get it over my head too.

I’m pleasantly surprised by this pattern, it’s a nice staple with good design lines. The fabric colour is a bolder choice for me, though I have very fond memories of a lovely jersey summer top that I wore a lot in my late 20’s to my early 30’s that was this exact shade of green and had the tiniest leaf shapes scattered on it. I still have a beach skirt that I made from the leftovers and I compared the colours when this fabric arrived 🙂 I think my top will be great for early spring as I’ve styled it with my white jeans.

Well, as always, thanks for reading and don’t be shy to drop me a comment. Have you got any nostalgic colours that you want to start wearing again?

See you soon!

Pin For Later